Minimal losses and regilt areas.

This sculpture, by technique and subject, has similarities with the production of the Lombard workshop of the Fantoni and specifically with the work of Andrea Fantoni (1659-1734), with particular reference to the cycle of martyrs placed on the cymases of the armoires of the second Sacristy of the Basilica of San Martino in Alzano Lombardo. Perhaps the most technically interesting element of the room, created by the Fantoni workshop between 1692 and 1701, the cycle presents 32 martyrs of saints made with great decorative skill and with the strong expressive charge typical of the Baroque taste: among them, there is a St. Bartholomew martyr, flanked by two figures of executioners. A further comparative suggestion with a Fantonian work may derive from the analogy with another sculpture of the same subject attributed to the workshop of Andrea Fantoni present in the church of San Marco in Foresto Sparso, on the parapet of the main altar: this figure of St. Bartholomew, carved in marble and 50 cm high, although closer to the standing position of the famous model by Marco d'Agrate, is comparable with our sculpture in the treatment of the musculature and in the creation and positioning of the saint's skin.

Comparative literature: R. Bossaglia, "I Fantoni: Quattro Secoli di Bottega di Scultura in Europa", Vicenza 1978, p. 200, n° 14;
L. Rigon, "La Bottega dei Fantoni", Bergamo 1988.